Client Assessment and Continuous Professional Development in Fitness Training

GEORGE: Introduce yourself and tell us a little about what you do and your background.

Chris: My name is Chris Liddle. I am certified to coach people in both fitness and general nutrition. My official business name is Chris Little Fitness, but I also have a trade name Invigorate Training, where you can find me at invigoratetraining.com. You can also find me at christianlittle.com. And to get there, you have to spell little with D's, L-I-D-D-L-E. My job title is typically personal trainer, online coach, but I also do a lot of media consulting, both inside and outside of the fitness industry. I work for businesses in the U.S. I do a lot of contracts and just like consulting throughout the fitness industry. I do videography, drone stuff. I produce podcasts as well as help behind the scenes at the occasional fitness conference. I'm kind of just one of those guys that wears a lot of hats. I like to travel and as such that kind of supports me in working with people where sometimes travel is required to meet them at conferences, support them with different things, or solve problems. I would say the mission of my business is whenever I consider everything that I do, I like helping people and solving problems, no matter what the odds are, no matter what the obstacles are, and no matter how creative or innovative I have to be. Even in a struggling economy, I like to help people get one percent better, whether it's with their fitness and health or whether it's with their business.

GEORGE: Tell me a funny or interesting story about yourself that help's us get to know you as a human.

Chris: First and foremost, I love that we are telling funny stories because that's one of the ways that I connect with my clients. And with that said, I would love to share with you a funny story that occurred between me and a client back in about 2019. I was working with a female soon-to-be mom, and she was squatting. And now, unfortunately, in one of the squat repetitions, she may have let out a little bit of a stinker. However, I was fast on my feet, and I did happen to locate the resident duck of the gym. I was like, oh man, those ducks, those ducks making noise again. And so I was able to remove any embarrassment for bodily functions that, of course, the duck had made. The duck just periodically shows up whenever these coincidental situations arise where sometimes people question if they, in fact, farted or not. Now, the duck tends to leave me hanging when I fart, and I just have to take the blame for that. But fortunately, I have been able to conceal most of them by just kind of going for a little walk on another part of the gym. This is a term that we like to refer to as crop dusting.

GEORGE: What strategies do you use to attract and retain clients in your personal training business?

Chris: I am a professional yapper. This is a phrase that I saw on somebody's Instagram bio recently and it resonated with me because when I was younger people would tell me that I talked too much. I have found a way to leverage that within this industry. So when I first started out I've spent a majority of my career self-employed or having to source out a lot of my own clients and so the way that I do that is I just continue to make connections no matter whether I'm busy or whether I'm not busy. I get myself out to events. I talk to people in my community. I talk to lots of people on Instagram. If I'm feeling shy or introverted I put them on my podcast. I just find ways to be present even if that is just simply registering for different sports teams and playing some rec basketball, soccer, etc. Volunteering, going to educational events, finance seminars, business events and when I do have clients then I treat them like they're my only client and I make sure that they understand that their feedback is valuable. I am extremely understanding of anything that may come up where they might have to cancel on me because that resonates with them. It enhances the quality of testimonials that I get and with that said I gather testimonials from everybody. I will gauge their comfort level to see if I can do a video testimonial or whether I can do a google testimonial or just a written testimonial whether it can be public or whether it has to be anonymous and then I showcase that throughout my website which I'm actually in the midst of upgrading right now so then it'll showcase even more testimonials and I will improve the SEO of these things so just making sure that it's very visible if somebody's doing a google search that they'll be able to see that I am a trainer in the Edmonton area for in-person and that I offer online as well for anybody who just might be broadly searching for an online fitness coach and throughout all those ways in addition to any podcast appearances I do in my own podcast my own hosting of it myself that is how I get the word out. I make sure to have business cards in my pocket and I make sure to say hi and be kind.

GEORGE: What is your process for assessing a new client's fitness level and addressing their goals?

Chris: So whether it's online or in person, I'll get a general assessment of what their body weight squat looks like. Sometimes I'll have them squat to a chair just so that they kind of have an end range of where they have to go, especially if they aren't used to squatting regularly. And then in addition, I will want to see their plank, their push-up, sometimes their wall sit, depending on the context of the situation. Sometimes I'll also ask to see some single leg exercises, even if it's just like a single leg balance on one leg and reach for the floor or a single leg squat to a box. And I'm just conscious of letting them know that there's no expectation that it has to be perfect. And I just try to make sure that they aren't too nervous about how the exercise looks. It's simply sort of a lens to help me select the most appropriate exercises for them as the program unfolds.

GEORGE: What certifications do you hold, and how do you stay updated on the latest fitness trends and research?

Chris: The current certifications that I hold are the Certified Functional Strength Coach certification as well as Precision Nutrition Coach certification, but on top of that I've gone to a lot of in-person seminars where there's a lot of hands-on stuff, like for example I've gone to Dr. Pat Davidson's seminar, I have done a lot of like online mentorship stuff, a lot of stuff with Compound Performance, and because I work so closely with so many coaches, I get to see a lot of different case studies, and I can compare notes with people. I work inside of two different fitness businesses where I can understand some of the roadblocks that might come up, and if I'm not helping somebody else overcome a roadblock, they're there to support me. I go to probably on average two in-person seminars or conferences I should say per year, and I generally seek out continuing education based on my client base, so I don't necessarily look for things that are for my own interests. If I need to be better at communication, or if I need to be better at understanding a certain demographic, or assessing things for a certain demographic based on the clients that I'm currently working with, then I will just look for perhaps an online certification or course, or I will seek out certain speakers to understand their point of view, their career lessons, and anything that might help me to improve, but it's just it's a constant ongoing process where I would never get to a point where I would consider myself finished learning, or fully evolved, or fully certified. You can never stop learning, and as an aside, I think one of the best things that I've done for myself is follow programming of other coaches just to get an idea of what it's like to be a client, and what it's like to do a different style of programming, and also just seeing how they coach, how they cue, and how they describe exercises.

GEORGE: How do you envision your personal training business evolving in the next few years?

Chris: I am extremely influenced by the advances in technology. I'm a bit of a nerd. So technology allows us to get a more clear idea of like who we're working with. I also use a lot of like personality assessments within the intake and ongoing communication with my clients. Shout out to my friend Alex McBarrity who I work with with A-Team Fitness. He's got a psychology background and so that has definitely influenced my process where we'll understand a lot of a person's personality traits, whether they are open to change, whether they are conscientious, whether they are introverted or extroverted, and all those other aspects. And just within like the onboard process, the check-in process, there's a lot of technology out there to help people and there's a lot of technology that we could actually teach our clients. We don't necessarily have to gatekeep things like teaching them how to answer their questions through tools like AI. For example, if they are looking for examples of high protein meals, they can absolutely generate a loose meal plan through ChatGPT, just some kind of an inspiration to perhaps enlighten them on how to make a breakfast wrap that has 50 grams of protein and which ingredients to get and what portions they need. We can also integrate a lot of technology that can make it more clear what their macronutrients mean for them and how they would come to the numbers that they come to. There's just so many opportunities to integrate technology to not only make it more personal because if you use it correctly, it's essentially like amplifying yourself. We won't be replaced by technology if we're leveraging it properly. So that's where I'd see it evolving is just people learning to leverage technology to make a bigger impact in a personal way.

GEORGE: What do you think are the biggest challenges currently facing the fitness & personal training industry?

Chris: I'll give you an example of a fitness professional who could have immense potential and a great path in front of them and some of the ways that they might fall off track. So what I witness because a lot of my work involves collaboration and help with other coaches so I get to see a lot of people struggles and it's usually related to them seeing a colleague on social media and either misrepresenting what their life is like so perhaps seeing polished content assuming the person's a millionaire or seeing the highlights and assuming that they never have setbacks or assuming that they know their business revenue. When you focus on just your own process and then look for ways to improve it, it gets so much easier to deliver a service. A big thing that people need to get better at is presenting a value proposition and this is something that is taught in business seminars outside of the fitness industry. You are essentially in business to solve a problem and if your value proposition doesn't align with your target demographic, it gets more challenging to essentially sell your service. So when people are clear on what they bring to the table and aren't so focused on what their colleagues bring to the table, it makes a more clear clean-cut path to delivering their service and growing their business. In doing so, this helps more people. When we get lost in the weeds and we get comparing and we get worried about charging money for a service even though it has an absolute net benefit and we're completely disregarding all the other things that people spend money on, that's where we almost start to self-sabotage. There's something that I reflect on often and I share with people frequently and it is that the best gift that you could give to a fitness professional is confidence and this can apply to people who have spent 20 years in the industry because with all this technology coming in, it can have an effect on a person's confidence and lead them to quit and that's the last thing that we need.

Want more information about Christian Liddle as a coach or how he can help you as a coach?

visit: https://www.instagram.com/christianliddle/ or https://invigoratetraining.com/

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